A Call to Conscience: The Anti-Contra War Campaign

332 Pages·2012·1.657 MB·English

by  Roger Peace

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CCOONNSSCCIIEENNCCEE
THE ANTI–CONTRA WAR CAMPAIGN
RROOGGEERR PPEEAACCEE
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A Call to Conscience
a volume in the series
Culture, Politics, and the Cold War
Edited by Christian Appy
other titles in the series
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Daniel Horowitz, Betty Friedan and the Making of “The Feminine Mystique”: The American Left, the Cold
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Tom Engelhardt, The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation
Christian G. Appy, ed., Cold War Constructions: The Political Culture of United States Imperialism,
1945–1966
H. Bruce Franklin, Vietnam and Other American Fantasies
Robert D. Dean, Imperial Brotherhood: Gender and the Making of Cold War Foreign Policy
Lee Bernstein, The Greatest Menace: Organized Crime in Cold War America
David C. Engerman, Nils Gilman, Mark H. Haefele, and Michael E. Latham, eds., Staging Growth:
Modernization, Development, and the Global Cold War
Jonathan Nashel, Edward Lansdale’s Cold War
James Peck, Washington’s China: The National Security World, the Cold War, and the Origins of Globalism
Edwin A. Martini, Invisible Enemies: The American War on Vietnam, 1975–2000
Tony Shaw, Hollywood’s Cold War
Maureen Ryan, The Other Side of Grief: The Home Front and the Aftermath in American Narratives of the
Vietnam War
David Hunt, Vietnam’s Southern Revolution: From Peasant Insurrection to Total War
Patrick Hagopian, The Vietnam War in American Memory: Veterans, Memorials, and the Politics of Healing
Jeremy Kuzmarov, The Myth of the Addicted Army: Vietnam and the Modern War on Drugs
Robert Surbrug Jr., Beyond Vietnam: The Politics of Protest in Massachusetts, 1974–1990
Larry Grubbs, Secular Missionaries: Americans and African Development in the 1960s
Robert A. Jacobs, The Dragon’s Tail: Americans Face the Atomic Age
Andrew J. Falk, Upstaging the Cold War: American Dissent and Cultural Diplomacy, 1940–1960
Jerry Lembcke, Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal
Anna G. Creadick, Perfectly Average: The Pursuit of Normality in Postwar America
Kathleen Donohue, ed., Liberty and Justice for All? Rethinking Politics in Cold War America
Jeremy Kuzmarov, Modernizing Repression: Police Training and Nation Building in the American Century
A Call to Conscience
The Anti–Contra War Campaign
Roger Peace
University of Massachusetts Press Amherst and Boston
Copyright (cid:185) 2012 by University of Massachusetts Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
LC 2012007997
ISBN 978-1-55849-932-4 (paper) ISBN 978-1-55849-931-7 (library cloth)
Designed by Sally Nichols
Set in Arno Pro
Printed and bound by Thomson-Shore, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Peace, Roger C. (Roger Craft), 1952–
A call to conscience : the anti/Contra War campaign / Roger Peace.
p. cm. — (Culture, politics, and the cold war)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-55849-932-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-55849-931-7 (library cloth : alk. paper)
1. Peace movements—United States—History—20th century. 2. Nicaragua—Politics and
government—1979–1990. 3. Contra Program (Central Intelligence Agency) 4. Solidarity—United
States—History—20th century. 5. Solidarity—Nicaragua—History—20th century. 6. United
States—Politics and government—1945–1989. 7. Christianity and politics—United States—
History—20th century. 8. Americans—Nicaragua—History—20th century. 9. Nicaragua—
Relations—United States. 10. United States—Relations—Nicaragua. I. Title. II. Title: Anti/
Contra War campaign.
JZ5584.U6P46 2012
327.730728509′04–dc23
2012007997
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data are available
In memory of Fr. Álvaro Argüello (1933–2010), an exemplary
educator who used his intellectual gifts in service to humanity
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1. U.S.-Nicaragua Relations, the Sandinista Revolution, and the Contra War 7
2. An Overview of the Contra War Debate 29
3. Origins of the Anti–Contra War Campaign 53
4. Expansion of the Anti–Contra War Campaign, 1983–84 81
5. Organizational Dynamics of a Decentralized Campaign 114
6. The Politics of Transnational Solidarity 145
7. Meeting the Political Challenge, 1985–86 177
8. Sustaining the Anti–Contra War Campaign, 1987–90 208
Conclusion 245
Notes 247
List of Personal Interviews and Communications 289
Index 293
[ vii ]
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